Saturday, August 9, 2014

On CNN's Reliable Sources this Sunday, host Brian Stelter interviewed Glenn Beck. Listen to these two sections of the interview and consider a skeptical review of Beck's false claims and lack of remorse over his role in tearing the country apart: tea party "conservatives" vs. progressives, liberals and radicals alike.

It's clear that Stelter never watched Beck on Fox. Beck's vitriol was constant; it was his manner of communicating what he claimed about the Obama administration and other progressives. "I was the cool kid for one minute." Apparently, Mr. Beck did not have a high regard for himself as a man. Concerns about being "cool" is adolescent. "All of us have added to the situation we're in now." "All" is a word used by someone who doesn't understand philosophy. No, some people have been trying to heal the divides created by the extremists on talk radio who have been dividing the nation, few more-so than Glenn Beck.

"I would do it all again." No regrets; no apologies. Beck did talk about Gandhi and MLK, but not "all the time." Usually he was attacking Obama and members of his administration with smears, lies, exaggerations and fictions blended with facts, pretty much the opposite of what King and Gandhi would have done in Beck's shoes. Addressing his "dumb" claim that Obama is a racist, again: no apology was offered.

Beck is fascinated by "strange bedfellows." Will he bring someone on his show who is promoting, for example, an amendment to the Constitution to abolish the illegitimate doctrine of corporate constitutional rights? He may well be unaware of the movement to do this, but in his newsletter, the author claimed Beck believes that only individuals have constitutional rights. If Mr. Beck wants to apply that principle, he could promote the movement to amend the Constitution and reverse case law he used to speak critically of when on Fox. If Beck really believes what he's saying about the left and the right talking to each other, he needs to interview Ralph Nader about his book, Unstoppable. Don't hold your breath.

...promoting the idea that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) "may be our Ronald Reagan," declared him The Blaze's "Man of the Year..."

In an interview with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Beck suggested ways that Republicans can win over young voters and expressed his support of internally reforming the Republican Party.

Beck has also engaged in advocacy for 2014 Republican primary candidates on The Blaze. He launched what he described as "Operation Defeat Lindsay Graham," offering up free airtime on his show to "anyone willing to run" against the incumbent South Carolina Senator.

Beck described Matt Bevin, the primary challenger to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as "called by God" to win his election, adding, "This is a guy we prayed for, and the choice is him or Mitch McConnell? Are you kidding me?" Discussing his support for Bevin, Beck told his listeners that "We have to get out and do our part. We have to go out and actually vote."

Discussing David Brat's primary victory over then-Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Beck told Politico it was "a team effort with our millions of listeners coupled with the extraordinary efforts of Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin."

Is the media finally waking up? about Obama's willingness "to circumvent Congress with his pen and his phone." This was August 6th, a few days after Speaker Boehner told Obama to deal with the crisis on the border on his own. Are Glenn Beck's supporters going to wake up to Beck's extreme, often misleading, one-sided story telling? If he hates politics, why is he so obsessed about the Democrat in the White House? Why has he been, and still is, misinforming while "informing" his audience? Did Beck mention the relatively few Presidential Directives Obama has issued compared with recent presidents? Stelter did not seem concerned about how "fair" Beck is toward the President. He probably didn't do much research.

Beck is also misrepresenting Senator Sanders who has been describing himself as an independent, not a socialist, for years now. Beck falsely claims Sanders says, "I'm this close to a communist." "If we're people of integrity and honor," Beck ironically follows that smear up with, "anything can happen." Again, "anything" conveys that he has not studied philosophy. Much more could happen if everyone were honest, but divides would remain."Anything" would not be possible. When Sanders was first elected to the U.S. Senate, Beck said that Vermont should be "vote[d] out of the union" because he won his election. He doesn't hate politics; he hates certain politicians that are not politically aligned with his extremist, far-right views. Beck embraces Ted Cruz, Matt Bevin and anyone but Lindsay Graham. Beck doesn't "hate" politics. He hates the establishment conservatives and nearly everyone to their left.

Beck's story about when Romney changed his mind about abortion is interesting, but when did Beck change his mind about it? And why? What was his pivot point about? Stelter did not ask.

He also did not quite get his prediction of a caliphate right. Beck claimed Western leftists would be supporting this caliphate. That's not happening. "Beck has been warning about a caliphate for years now. He had previously predicted that the caliphate would take over the United States by March 3 of 2011, while also warning that the caliphate would control Egypt after the Arab Spring." As this is being written, Obama is bombing the new caliphate in Iraq. An update to this post will cover what Beck conveys in his newsletter about this development if anything. Beck likes it when Obama kills the bad guys, even when that killing was flat-out unconstitutional.

Beck's "principled" stand against the President is fraudulent and hypocritical.

"I know all of the bankers," Beck claimed. That would not be a difficult statement to disprove. The money Beck is describing isn't printed. It is essentially an electronic credit. "In history, it's never worked." In history, we've never had a Federal Reserve making these kinds of loans before. In history there have been financial collapses, runs on the banks, etc periodically. It is the Federal Reserve's task to keep the economy on an even keel. It is the economy, unregulated capitalism, which Beck supports, that causes these booms and busts in the first place. The Fed's ability to rescue major banks and regulate the temperature of the economy, along with macroeconomic government policy making, keeps capitalism from these devastating (to working poor and middle classes) busts. Beck admits he doesn't know jack about the economy. Why would anyone listen to him talk about the Federal Reserve? Fear. Why should anyone listen to Glenn Beck's predictions? He reinforces what fearful people want to believe. Why would anyone listen to ignorant fear-mongering? Beck preys on fearful reactionaries.

If there is a collapse of our civilization, it will be in large part to the capitalist system and its refusal to get off the oil addiction that will cause it. Glenn Beck, again, is an advocate for unfettered capitalism and a climate change denier. As an influence in American society, he's very much a contributor to the disaster he "foresees."

Part II:

If we're in a "cold civil war," Glenn Beck has been and remains a general leading the fight. "I'm not calling for one," Beck claims. He's helping lead one! A cold civil war, because "civil" is not violent, is called politics, political discourse, persuasion, compromise or there lack-of. It's also about money, but that is not addressed by plutocratic shill, Glenn Beck. Beck's followers call the President horrible things on Glenn Beck dot com to this day because Glenn Beck has been relentlessly and deceitfully attacking Obama from the first day he took office. Glenn Beck is the tea-party propagandist-in-chief, so he's either in complete denial of his role or he's just deceiving CNN's audience. A safe bet is Beck knows exactly what his role is in this cold civil war he's helping lead.

"...September 11th...was the week I started on radio." That's a false claim. The Glenn Beck Program first aired the previous year on WFLA (AM) in Tampa, FL. He knows that's a false claim, and that makes it a lie to add to the growing list of provable lies Beck has told. Too bad Stelter was woefully unprepared for this interview; he could have called Mr. Beck out for that lie on the spot. On The View, Whoopie Goldberg asked Beck why he lied about their chance meeting on a train. "I don't know" Beck replied. We will know that Beck is truly evolving when he offers an honest answer to that question. Why does Glenn Beck lie?

What else do you hear from this segment that you know, from listening to Glenn Beck, isn't quite accurate or is misleading? What do you hear that's helpful for the nation? Leave comments below.

Update, 8/13/2014: The U.S. is now hitting ISIL positions in Iraq with hellfire missiles and bombs. Glenn Beck's response? He "found himself particularly frustrated by what feels like a lack of urgency or even understanding from the Obama Administration."Obama just can't kill enough people for Glenn Beck.